Crews from General Hydronics were beginning work a large section of water pipeline Thursday that will eventually bring brackish water from well fields north of the city to a as-of-yet-unbuilt desalination plant on the city's west side.

District 4 Commissioner said the work is part of a contract the city awarded to the local contractor in September, and the pipes being laid will actually carry the brackish water into the city, once the "Snake Tank Project" is operational.

The City Commission awarded the contract, worth about $2.3 million, to Alamogordo-based General Hydronics, the outfit that also repaired a broken water line that brings in water from the Sacramento Mountains.

The contract calls for 19,000 feet of 24-inch pipeline and various other items as part of the desalination project, which the city hopes will address projected water shortfalls in the coming decades.

The Bureau of Land Management recently granted the city permission to proceed with the project, and the city has already planned a temporary desalination site at an existing water treatment plant.

According to a press released issued by the city utilities department, crews began work on Monday and will continue through March of next year. They will install the lines from about mile marker 5 to mile marker 2 on the west side of the relief route.

Drivers in the area are advised to use caution when traveling through the area between 6:30 a.

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m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The relief route, known officially as the Charlie T. Lee Memorial Relief Route, runs on the west side of the city from the intersection of U.S. Highways 82 and 54/70 on the north side of Alamogordo to U.S. Highway 70 on the south side, basically bypassing White Sands Boulevard, one of the main thoroughfares in Alamogordo.